the comando pub

[sless]

im not a big eater

[Mr Smith]

im not a big eater

You're not a big owt, although I could be wrong about that.

[Delilahcat]

I can remember when the indian restaurants were unlicensed and if you wanted a drink you had to bring your own. The off license in Ocean Road did a roaring trade. Of course the pubs shut at 10 in those days as well.

[Jarrow Pete]

I can remember when the indian restaurants were unlicensed and if you wanted a drink you had to bring your own. The off license in Ocean Road did a roaring trade. Of course the pubs shut at 10 in those days as well.

I started drinking about the same time as you Delilahcat and can only remember the pubs closing at 10.30PM. The opening hours were Monday to Saturday 11AM till 3PM and 6PM to I0.30PM. Sundays hours were 12 till 2PM and 7PM till 10.30PM.
In Scotland until the early 90s pubs used to close at 10PM, there was nothing worse than coming out of a pub at 10PM and find the sun was still shining on a summers night.

[Pilot]

I had a feeling on a Sunday the closed half an hour earlier at 10pm, but I could rarely afford drink in my early years

[ralph]

Yes Pilot, I remember the pubs closing at 10pm on Sunday - miserable times I also remember the ritual on Sunday lunch time, of dad telling mam that he would be back from the pub at 2' O clock and he always arrived back between 3.00 and 3.30.

Mam knew this would happen, but always prepared the meal for 2.00, then would plate his up and put it in the oven, there to wither and dry onto the plate. He would arrive back, the worse for wear, with a bottle of McEwan's Export in his pocket as a peace-offering, that was promptly rebuffed. The now burnt offering would be brought from the oven and be thrown into the back of the fire - plate and all. Just how it should be. After all - Sunday is a family day.

[Jarrow Pete]

I had a feeling on a Sunday the closed half an hour earlier at 10pm, but I could rarely afford drink in my early years

When they allowed pubs to stay open till 11PM Sundays still closed at 10.30PM.

[ralph]

Yes, that did happen - I remember feeling very aggrieved by that.

[martymont]

Pete your right 10 pm nights and not at all on Sundays, until the change you could only get a drink if you were booked into a hotel. In the hotel bar

[Mr Smith]

Pete your right 10 pm nights and not at all on Sundays, until the change you could only get a drink if you were booked into a hotel. In the hotel bar

What on earth are you talking about, that's not what Pete said, and there has always
been Sunday drinking except in Scotland.

[ralph]

I remember when I was living in Lisburn (Northern Ireland) in 1972 -73, the pubs there were closed on Sundays. You either had to be taken as a guest to a club, or head south of the border, which is what we did, we went to Dublin. The only trouble with that was, it could get a bit risky travelling through the border towns at that time, me and my mate Brian had a couple of narrow squeaks

[Mr Smith]

It's not that long ago that they started to allow pubs in Scotland to open on a Sunday.
I wasn't aware the the same applied to Northern Ireland.

[Delilahcat]

'Dry as a Welsh Sunday' refers to the fact that pubs in Wales were also closed Sundays.
I am still convinced that closing time used to be 10 back in the late fifties very early sixties. Up here in the North East anyway.

[Pilot]

In Wales it depended which county you were in, I used to go to the Menai Straits regatta with my college and we stayed in Menai village on Angelsey which was dry on a Sunday, but walk over to the mainland and the pubs were open.

[Delilahcat]

Which only goes to show how daft the licensing laws were. I can remember where you had to order a meal to be able to get a drink on a Sunday in Scotland.

[Jarrow Pete]

Which only goes to show how daft the licensing laws were. I can remember where you had to order a meal to be able to get a drink on a Sunday in Scotland.

It is now coming up to 42years since I started travelling to Scotland to work. Initially pubs closed at 10 PM and men would go straight to the pub from work and would end up going home rat arsed at 10PM. No pubs opened on a Sunday,you could get a drink in a hotel if you did not belong in that location,so you ended up with groups from different villages passing each other to go to the next village for a Sunday drink.In the 80s they altered the drink laws in Scotland and basically let the pubs stay open 24 hours a day if they wished. This had the affect of cutting down the number of abusive drunks you used to get in pubs near 10pm.
I still think pubs in England in my time closed at 10.30PM on a Sunday,but as you get older so does your memory,so while I think I am right I could be wrong.

[Jarrow Pete]

Which only goes to show how daft the licensing laws were. I can remember where you had to order a meal to be able to get a drink on a Sunday in Scotland.

Did you not have to do that here if you wanted a drink in a night club on a Sunday. Can remember chicken and chips in a basket at the Kismet and Ranch House on Sunday nights.

[gtirbri]

My first pint was in the Royal at tyne dock then I drank in the Garricks Head as my local

[ralph]

Pete, I think you could right about that, I didn't really go to night clubs very often, but I seem to remember paying a 'cover charge' that included a 'token meal' so that the club complied with the law.

[Delilahcat]

Never had the 'pleasure of going to the Kismet but I remember a night club in Leeds where the 'meal' consisted of a tinned hot dog sausage and a spoonful of peas. The lengths we'd go to to get a drink!